To those who have more will be given meaning

In exploring the statement, “To those who have, more will be given,” the first thing to explore is what the word “have” means. Does it mean that you possess more than other people and, as a result, you will receive more? Within the world of time and space this can appear to be true, but this is not what the statement is pointing toward.

The “have” relates to the degree to which you are in alignment and communion with that toward which the word God points. That which the word God points toward is a continual and infinite outpouring of creativity into form. The degree to which you are in communion with this outpouring is the degree to which more pours through you, provided you do not fall into the error of believing that what is poured through you is something you personally create or something that can be claimed as your own.

It is an outpouring to be recognized for the glory of God.

Please understand that this is not some kind of reward system. Think of the sun shining in the sky. The love of the Divine pours out upon the just and the unjust whether you believe that to be justified or not. The real question is this: are you willing to become an outpouring of Divine intention? And if so, how do you become available to this infinite experience of grace?

The next question I would ask is this: “What do you go to God for?”

Most Christians (and most believers of other Abrahamic religions) view God as something outside themselves to which they go in order to ask for something or for a change in circumstance that would enhance their life within the dimension of time and space. They see God as separate from themselves and, through prayer or some form of ritual, attempt to bridge this gap.

For many, God becomes a kind of Cosmic ordering system. We see this reflected in teachings often described as the Prosperity Gospel, which is fundamentally about giving in order to get. What frequently happens is that the preachers and pastors receive while the givers lose the little they have. This is not the meaning of the statement, “For those who have, more will be given.”

In order to live in alignment with this statement, you must go to God for one reason alone, and that reason is communion with that toward which the word God points. This is the meaning of the powerful phrase, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all shall be added unto you.”

Again, this is not a reward system. It is simply the nature of God AS IS.

God is like the sun. It is always shining. It ever is.

The issue is that when you become identified with the separate sense of the personal self, you become like the cloud that obscures the light intended to shine through you. The more you pray from the illusion of separation, the thicker the cloud becomes. This is not punishment. It is simply the nature of the illusion of separation.

Here you have to be honest with yourself. Do you want to KNOW the experience to which the word “God” points as your direct experience, or are you prepared merely to believe ideas about the experience pointed to by the word God? If it is the latter, then in all likelihood you will not be among those to whom more is added.

There is a paradox to be lived in the life where more is added unto you, and it is this: you begin to live a life in which you are no longer identified with the separate sense of the personal self. The paradox is that the less there is of you as the separate sense of self, the more there is of the REAL YOU.

This is the meaning of the instruction from the Master Jesus when he says, “Deny thyself, take up your cross and follow me.” The cross you are to take up is not some wooden structure but the burden of identification with “I, me, myself.” This is the self that is crucified through the denial of its supposed reality.

So to take up your cross is to begin the process of dis-identification to which the Master Jesus pointed when he said, “He who would save his life shall lose it.” This statement is not to be understood literally but psychologically. It does not mean that you must physically die upon a cross, but that you begin to explore the false sense of self you believe yourself to be and which you spend so much energy trying to preserve through comfort, security, and achievement.

It is the life you attempt to save by storing up treasure upon the earth.

There is nothing wrong with comfort, but comfort is not the deeper reality of the life that you are and that is intended to be expressed through you and AS YOU.

The paradox that many Christians may find uncomfortable is this: if you think you are one of the saved, then in all likelihood you are still identified with the one that believes themselves to be saved. Yet that one is not the deepest reality of who you are. The separate sense of self cannot be saved as the separate sense of self because in reality it is not of God.

A metaphor that may help illuminate this is to see yourself as the empty sky while remaining identified with the clouds that pass through it. Within this empty sky shines the never-ending Light of the Divine. It shines upon everyone, yet many do not feel its warmth because the clouds obscure the Light already present.

There is a paradox to be experienced within this invitation to emptiness, and it is this: by way of emptiness there becomes available the infinite outpouring of fulfillment. Do not attempt to understand this through the intellect. It can only be understood through direct experience, that is, through the experience toward which the word God points.

Within the image of the empty sky you cannot grasp God as an idea, concept, or image. This emptiness is not negative. It is the KNOWING of fulfillment. To the extent that you learn to abide within this state is the degree to which you become available to be added unto and to live the more abundant life promised by the Master Jesus.

The challenge is to explore what this invitation to “To those who have more shall be given” means within your own life beyond inherited ideas that have never been confirmed within your direct experience.

Summary

The statement “To those who have, more will be given” is often misunderstood as referring to material possession or worldly success. Yet the deeper meaning has little to do with accumulation and everything to do with alignment and communion with that toward which the word God points.

The “have” spoken of by the Master Jesus is not about ownership but availability. It relates to the degree to which a person becomes open to the continual outpouring of Divine creativity, Presence, and grace. The more one lives in communion with this outpouring, the more life flows through them. Not as personal achievement, but as an expression of the Divine.

This teaching is not a reward system. God is like the sun that shines upon the just and the unjust alike. The issue is not whether the Divine is giving, but whether we are available to receive and express what is already being poured forth.

Much of religion approaches God as something separate from oneself, a distant power to which one goes in order to ask for comfort, security, success, or change in circumstance. Yet the deeper invitation is not merely to believe ideas about God, but to directly KNOW the experience toward which the word God points.

This requires a profound inner paradox. The less identified you become with the separate sense of “I, me, myself,” the more the REAL YOU begins to shine forth. This is the deeper meaning behind the instruction to “deny thyself” and “take up your cross.” The cross is not merely a historical symbol but the willingness to let the false sense of self be seen through and relinquished.

The metaphor of the empty sky points toward this reality. The clouds are the thoughts, fears, identities, and attachments of the personal self. Yet beyond these clouds shines the ever-present Light of the Divine. The Light has never ceased shining. It is only obscured.

Paradoxically, it is through this inner emptiness that true fulfillment becomes available. This emptiness is not negative. It is the KNOWING of wholeness beyond concepts and beyond inherited belief. To abide within this state is to become available to the “more” of which the Master Jesus spoke — the abundant life that flows not from possession, but from communion with the Divine AS IS.

Tony Cuckson, Cordressogagh, Ireland